Friuli Venezia Giulia
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© Lonely Planet 401 FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA Friuli Venezia Giulia Friuli Venezia Giulia is the hardest of the country’s 20 regions to nail down, an overlooked and largely peripheral enclave that fits rather awkwardly into the modern Italian mix. But, unper turbed by the lack of fawning visitors, this far-from-boring northeastern corner has shrugged off the influences of numerous meddling outsiders and developed a flavour of its own. While Friuli’s culture may not be as internationally renowned as that of Rome or Venice, its underlying essence is no less potent, and this is reflected in its complex cuisine, ping pong history and plethora of jealously guarded traditions. The region even has its own language, Friulian, a Romance tongue related to Ladin with about 600,000 native speakers and three different dialects. One of Italy’s five semi-autonomous regions, Friuli Venezia Giulia has its spiritual home in Udine and its administrative capital in Trieste. However, Trieste is a relative newcomer to this cultural melting pot, added in 1920. Friuli’s early power was anchored in Aquileia (under Roman rule), Cividale del Friuli (under the Lombards) and ultimately Udine (under the Venetians). Bordered by Austria, Slovenia and the Italian region of Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia is an eclectic region, and the physical terrain is equally varied, with the Giulie and Carnic Alps guarding the northern borders, Venetian-like lagoons in the south and a curious karst to pography dominating the land around Trieste in the east. Contrarians keen to draw up an alternative Italian wish list should include hiking around Tarvisio, some beach time in sunny Grado, a cup of Illy coffee in enigmatic Trieste and a world-class glass of white wine underneath the Venetian arches of Udine. HIGHLIGHTS Walk along the star-shaped ramparts of heavily fortified Palmanova ( p414 ) Giulie Alps Seek out the literary ghosts of Joyce, Saba and Svevo in the Viennese-style cafes of Trieste ( p409 ) Say ‘good morning’ in three different lan San Daniele del Friuli guages while hiking in the magnificent Giulie Alps ( p423 ) Udine Sample one of Italy’s – and the world’s – finest cured hams in San Daniele del Friuli ( p422 ) Sacile Palmanova Uncover a less-frenetic version of Venice in watery Sacile ( p417 ) Unravel the intricacies of the Friulian language Trieste and culture in multifarious Udine ( p418 ) POPULATION: 1.2 MILLION AREA : 7845 SQ KM 402 FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA •• Trieste lonelyplanet.com TRIESTE still somehow sticks in your memory. Maybe pop 205,526 it’s the bracing sea air and the all-pervading Grand but not spectacular, melancholy but sense of isolation, or possibly it’s the thought not sad, historic but not legendary; Trieste that – for better or worse – there’s nowhere is one of Italy’s most cryptic cities, a nos else remotely like it in Italy. talgic legacy of Mitteleuropa that served as FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA Austro-Hungary’s sole outlet to the sea until History it was handed over to an ascendant Rome According to one misty legend, Trieste was after WWI. Scattered across a thin karstic founded by Japhet, son of the biblical Noah, plateau and almost surrounded by Slovenia while another legend grants founding-father and the Adriatic, the city feels isolated and status to Tergeste, a companion of Jason (of peripheral to the rest of the Italian peninsula – Argonauts fame). More prosaically, the Roman a nowhere land that has long served as an colony of Tergeste was established in 178 BC escape hatch for exiles, misfits and writers and rapidly became a wealthy port. The Goths, undergoing identity crises. James Joyce de Byzantines and Lombards followed and, in camped here in the early 1900s and drafted the 1202, the city fell to the Venetians. Trieste early chapters of Ulysses, while half a century won its independence, but in 1382 voluntarily earlier doomed Habsburg Emperor of Mexico, accepted the overlordship of Austria. Maximillian I, constructed an ill-fated dream Trieste (along with Gorizia) and extensive home, the rhapsodic Castello di Miramare on territory in what is now Slovenia and Croatia the coast 7km to the north. were assigned to Italy after WWI and the re With its chilling bora scura winds and curi gion of Venezia Giulia was created alongside ous lack of intimacy, Trieste rarely inspires on the region of Friuli (whose main cities are first viewing. Extra-savvy travellers seek out Udine, Pordenone and Cividale). Defeat in its famous fin de siècle coffee shops and dark WWII saw most of Venezia Giulia pass to buffet bars, joints where Joyce once sat along the then communist Yugoslavia, and Trieste with hundreds like him dreaming of Dublin, (under Allied control until 1954) was made New York or somewhere else. Trieste, as travel capital of the single mixed region of Friuli writer Jan Morris once opined, ‘offers no un Venezia Giulia, much to the irritation (to this forgettable landmark, no universally familiar day) of the Udine and Friulian populace. melody, no unmistakable cuisine, hardly a The 18th and 19th centuries were a pros single native name that anyone knows’, yet it perous era for the cosmopolitan Habsburg port. Sigmund Freud, James Joyce and Italo Svevo came here to think and write, while OUR TOP FIVE SMALL TOWNS IN two of Verdi’s operas (Il Corsaro and Stifelio) FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA were premiered in the city. Trieste’s cultural Sacile ( p417 ) An attractive melange of intricacies were revisited in 2001 in travel rivers and gardens that serves as a tran writer Jan Morris’ evocative memoir Trieste quillity-seeker’s alternative to Venice. and the Meaning of Nowhere. Tarvisio ( p423 ) Unheralded northeast ern town sandwiched between the Orientation Carnic and Giulie Alps and close to the The bus and train stations are at the northern tri-point of Italy, Austria and Slovenia. edge of town. To the west lies the port and the Adriatic Sea and to the east rises the Carso San Daniele del Friuli ( p422 ) Important plateau. The Borgo Teresiano centres on the centre of Friulian culture and proud pur photogenic Canal Grande. The vast Piazza veyor of one of Italy’s finest cured hams. dell’Unità d’Italia is the heart of the city, Muggia ( p412 ) Beguiling Venetian watched over from the southeast by the Colle fishing village and the only Italian di San Giusto and its 15th-century castle. settlement on the primarily Slavic Istria peninsula. Information Aquileia ( p415 ) One-time cornerstone Hospital (%040 399 25 27; Piazza dell’Ospedale 1) of the Roman Empire that has laid bare Mail Boxes Etc (%040 76 40 55; Via San Francesco its evocative ruins and intricate mosaics. d’Assisi 15a; per 20min €2.50; h9am-1pm & 3-7pm Mon-Fri, 9am-noon Sat) Internet cafe. .